Boater First Aid Kit

Before you even begin building a boater first aid kit ask yourself what the most likely types of injuries you’ll encounter are. Your answer to this question will determine what you pack in your first aid kit. Remember, you only have limited space – there’s not enough room for everything. Also, pack with others in mind. You may not be diabetic, but chances are somebody else on the river is, so cake icing would be a valuable addition to your kit.

The most common injuries we see are: sprained ankles, pulled muscles, head lacerations (remember to tuck), dislocated shoulders, and dehydration. With that in mind, here’s a very small, but effective, kit equipped to handle the aforementioned emergencies.

1.Sam splint: Great for stabilizing sprained ankles, or broken bones
2.Crevats: These triangular pieces of cloth can be used for slinging a dislocated shoulder, or wrapping a wound
3.Roller Gauze: Dip it in a little iodine water to create a wet dressing, or use it to wrap a wound
4.Gauze packets: to stop the bleeding
5.Band-aids and butterflies
6.Tape
7.Matches (to warm people up)
8.CPR mask
9.Gloves
10. Ace wrap
11. Ibuprofen/Aspirin, Benadryl (for those allergic to bee stings, etc), Cake Icing (for diabetics), Oral potassium/salt (for dehydrated people that can’t keep water down), iodine (for purifying water or cleaning wounds – when cleaning wounds dilute the iodine)

Having a first aid kit is only the first step. Knowing how to use it or administer aid is the second step. We offer advanced wilderness first aid courses as well as wilderness first responder courses here at NOC. Even if you don’t take a course with us, we strongly encourage all boaters to take a first aid course somewhere - preferablly a wilderness course.